General Tso’s Chicken In the Instant Pot {Paleo}

This paleo General Tso’s Chicken is made in the Instant Pot in under 30 minutes! Way better than takeout and just as fast, too, it’s gluten-free, grain free, and free of refined sugar and soy. Spicy and sweet, it’s great served over cauliflower rice or with your favorite stir fried veggies!

Be still my heart…the Instant Pot has done it again! How did I ever live without this thing? The options feel endless now that I can make “elaborate” meals that once intimidated me in 30 minutes or less.

This paleo version of general tso’s chicken is a big milestone for me. To start, it’s my first time using the Instant Pot to sear “breaded” chicken (or dredged chicken) and it did a fabulous job. No mess or sticking to the bottom at all – score!

Second, it got me over my “fear” of general tso’s chicken. Trust me – you have no idea what I’m about to say.

You see, when I was little, like possibly 2 or 3 years old little, my parents were obsessed with General Tso’s Chicken and I was obsessed with Superman. I watched all the Superman movies, but, I was particularly obsessed with Superman II, which happens to feature the villain “general Zod”.

Does anyone see where this is going yet? Like, to a 3 year old, how many “generals” even exist in the world? I naturally assumed that general Tso was general Zod, and, naturally, I was very, very afraid of this chicken my parents insisted on eating at least once per week.

Perhaps the spice level instilled fear in me as well – this I cannot remember. All I know is that the bad guy from Superman was making chicken at our local Chinese place and my parents flipping LOVED it. First real existential crisis of my life.

Fast forward a good long time (to adulthood, really) and I still never ate general tso’s chicken. The association apparently ran really deep. It took me 30 years to actually try the dang chicken, I’m not kidding.

The thing is, once you try it, how can you NOT love it?! Sweet, sticky, spicy perfection. Deepest darkest questions from childhood, answered. Well, maybe not entirely (though that would be nice) but at least it left me with a funny anecdote to go with my blog post for this favorite takeout fake-out recipe 🙂

Back to the actual chicken recipe! I decided after making my sweet and sour chicken that general tso’s needed to be next on my list! With the first bite, any “fear” I had for it was of course erased for good.

Just a heads up, I didn’t make this one Whole30 compliant, since I wanted to go for a really sticky sauce as close to the original as possible, that I didn’t think dates could accomplish (however, if you want to test it out, go for it!)

Instead, I used coconut sugar and molasses to sweeten, although you can sub honey for the molasses if you happen to have it on hand, or you’re not a fan of molasses.

The steps are similar to my sweet and sour chicken, with the exception of the additional step of dredging the chicken in egg and arrowroot starch prior to searing.

You can also use tapioca starch in place of arrowroot, and I believe potato starch would work as well if you prefer.

The sauce ingredients are straightforward and similar to other Asian inspired sauces I’ve made – coconut aminos, rice vinegar, a bit of sesame oil, crushed red pepper, garlic, ginger. Also, a bit of arrowroot mixed with broth or water at the end to thicken the sauce to your preference.

As written, the recipe has the perfect spicy/sweet balance in my opinion, but you can always adjust the spice level to suit your preference by adjusting the amount of crushed red pepper. I served mine over fried cauliflower rice, but when I had leftovers I served it over sautéed greens and it was delicious that way too!

You can’t go wrong with some stir fried veggies on the side and extra toasted sesame seeds and scallions on top either.

I’m so excited for you to try this one – I know you’re going to love it – let’s get started!

General Tso’s Chicken in the Instant Pot {Paleo}

General Tso's Chicken in the Instant Pot {Paleo}

This paleo general tso's chicken is made in the Instant Pot in under 30 minutes! Way better than takeout and just as fast, too, it's gluten-free, grain free, and free of refined sugar and soy. Spicy and sweet, it's great served over cauliflower rice or with your favorite stir fried veggies!

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About Michele

More than a little into running and paleo recipes (yoga now too!) but I'm not here to rain on your grains (or anything else) so come along for the ride! I do a little too much of everything (except cleaning), and I enjoy laughing at myself. As long as I'm the one making the jokes, that is. Just kidding. So bring me your angst, your appetite and your frying pan and climb aboard!

Hi! If you’re currently low FODMAP you will have to modify many recipes, or just save them for after you begin to reintroduce FODMAP foods. I currently am able to eat many of them that used to bother me.

Made this tonight for the family and it was AMAZING!! I can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch today, I did find coating the chicken to be a little frustrating. So I ended up just dumping the arrowroot starch in a gallon ziplock bag and sticking the egg coated chicken in there and then shaking it up. Seemed to work well. You are my favorite food blogger. All your recipes have been huge hits! Thank you!

So thrilled you liked it! And I’m not sure why I forgot to include that in the instructions, but that’s exactly what I did with the arrowroot and yes it’s the fastest way. Thanks for bringing that up and so happy you’re enjoying the recipes 🙂

This meal was absolutely amazing. My husband and I ate 1.45 lbs of chicken ourselves with no leftovers unfortunately! I like Tara’s idea of coating the chicken in a plastic bag as it was a bit tedious and very time consuming.

Hiii MICHELE,
I like your article and i like chicken too much…and After read your article i decided i will eat chicken 2 times in 1 week.. such a informative post for me and now i will be share with my friends.. thank you so much for sharing this article.. keep sharing with us..

Made this last night and it was delicious! I paired mine with sauteed bok choy and some shiritaki noodles. Next time I’ll try the ziploc bag trick (I should have read the comments). I must add that I’ve tried quite a few of your recipes and they have all been excellent. You’ve quickly moved up to the top of my favorite food bloggers, right next to Danielle Walker, Michelle Tam and Juli Bauer. Next on my list is the strawberry banana bread…just waiting on my bananas to brown!

I made this last week and it was AMAZING!! I roasted broccoli with some oil and sesame seeds for the side. My husband even loved it enough to have left overs (he never eats left overs!). I love the recipes here. Thanks!!!!

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Hi! I’m so happy you stopped by! My name is Michele and I’m a Paleo eater and recipe creator, runner, mom of 3, and the gal behind Paleo Running Momma! Over here you’ll find real-food, clean eating family favorites that you’ll be excited to share with your loved ones. I hope you stay awhile, eat, savor, and enjoy!